Great essay.

I made it to geezer status this year and I regularly fish with a couple of older geezers - they have me by 20 years. They no longer fish with Bamboo - they managed to "tech up" to graphite but they still use some very old Hardy Perfects and they work just fine---and they tell me they can still get parts when needed. I'm jealous of their reels and I don;t think they feel the same about my reels.